Yo Soy Volume 14
From a Migrant Field Worker to a University Professor
Will be published approx. on 15. December 2025
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-57441-985-6 (ISBN)
Description
Yo Soy is a memoir of Roberto E. Villarreal's life struggle for social justice and equality and a reclamation of his ancestry, language, and culture, forbidden by the Texas state school policies during his childhood in the 1930s. Racism, bigotry, violence, and subordination formed a shell difficult to overcome. The "Mexican problem," as it was known, was deeply ingrained in the life of the Anglo community, creating a perpetual labor class. As a result, Mexican Americans were poverty-stricken sharecroppers and migrants, with a complete disconnect between families and the school system.
This was the setting in South Texas where Villarreal grew up in the 1930s to 1950s. His desire to learn English and the American culture were blocked by various obstacles, such as school attendance in the spring semester only and migrant work in lieu of a fall semester. The best route for success was a formal education, but many Hispanic students dropped out of school at the fourth or fifth grade. Villarreal, however, fought to surmount the odds and an internal lack of confidence in order to achieve the highest level of education possible.
Despite numerous struggles, frustrations, and animosities with others in education, Villarreal first graduated from elementary school at the age of 18 and high school at 22. He soon became an unprepared university student but proceeded to acquire a bachelor's degree in four years, followed by two master's degrees and a PhD. In the process he taught migrants and elementary, high school, community college, and university-level students. While at the University of Texas at El Paso, Villarreal became highly productive as a teacher, author, administrator, president of the University Graduate Council, Fulbright Scholar, and community activist. Ultimately, the efforts of his generation's entry into higher education brought greater integration between Anglos and Mexican Americans, better access to universities, greater graduation rates, and larger recognition and importance to the Mexican American community.
This was the setting in South Texas where Villarreal grew up in the 1930s to 1950s. His desire to learn English and the American culture were blocked by various obstacles, such as school attendance in the spring semester only and migrant work in lieu of a fall semester. The best route for success was a formal education, but many Hispanic students dropped out of school at the fourth or fifth grade. Villarreal, however, fought to surmount the odds and an internal lack of confidence in order to achieve the highest level of education possible.
Despite numerous struggles, frustrations, and animosities with others in education, Villarreal first graduated from elementary school at the age of 18 and high school at 22. He soon became an unprepared university student but proceeded to acquire a bachelor's degree in four years, followed by two master's degrees and a PhD. In the process he taught migrants and elementary, high school, community college, and university-level students. While at the University of Texas at El Paso, Villarreal became highly productive as a teacher, author, administrator, president of the University Graduate Council, Fulbright Scholar, and community activist. Ultimately, the efforts of his generation's entry into higher education brought greater integration between Anglos and Mexican Americans, better access to universities, greater graduation rates, and larger recognition and importance to the Mexican American community.
Reviews / Votes
"Yo Soy nostalgically retrieves the rural life of a family working as sharecroppers in a community named El Oso (Karnes County, in South Texas). Family members, headed by hard-working parents, struggle and labor tirelessly to make ends meet. The author offers excellent descriptions of aspects of home life and social life in El Oso and surrounding areas. Villarreal's story is an admirable one of success against immense odds, poverty, prejudice, and an unsympathetic school system. We find the author making explicit observations about his first entry into teaching at the higher education level, about his quest to acquire his PhD, and finally finding a tenured post as a college professor. The account given of his incumbency as a faculty member and administrator at UTEP and his engagement in the Chicano Movement is most informative and instructive." - Arnoldo De Leon, author of They Called Them Greasers: Anglo Attitudes toward Mexicans in Texas, 1821-1900 and coauthor of North to Aztlan: A History of Mexican Americans in the United States"The Yo Soy story is about a remarkable journey-a South Texas kid who went from agricultural field worker to university professor. The odds against attending college are huge for that group of workers and the path to success in going beyond a bachelor's degree for Villarreal is an impressive story. The strength of the manuscript is its narrative about the life of a migrant family in the US in the post-World War II era." - Ricardo Romo, author of East Los Angeles: History of a Barrio
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Denton
United States
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
37 b&w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
431 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-57441-985-6 (9781574419856)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Roberto E. Villarreal received a PhD in political science from the University of Oklahoma. He taught for nearly thirty years at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he also was vice president for academic affairs, cofounder of the Hispanic Leadership Institute, and a Fulbright Scholar. He is the author of Chicano Elites and Non-Elites and coeditor of Latino Empowerment and Latinos and Political Coalitions. He was named as one of one hundred most influential Hispanics in the US by The Hispanic Business Magazine.